If
that infant wretch become eventually a murderer like his father, is
he to blame? Fondled by robbers, already dressed as a robber, born
of a robber, whose own history was perhaps similar. Is it right?
O, man, man, seek not to dive into the mystery of moral good and
evil; confess thyself a worm, cast thyself on the earth, and murmur
with thy lips in the dust, Jesus, Jesus!
What most surprised me with respect to the prisoners, was their
good behaviour; I call it good when all things are taken into
consideration, and when I compare it with that of the general class
of prisoners in foreign lands. They had their occasional bursts of
wild gaiety, their occasional quarrels, which they were in the
habit of settling in a corner of the inferior court with their long
knives; the result not unfrequently being death, or a dreadful gash
in the face or the abdomen; but, upon the whole, their conduct was
infinitely superior to what might have been expected from the
inmates of such a place. Yet this was not the result of coercion,
or any particular care which was exercised over them; for perhaps
in no part of the world are prisoners so left to themselves and so
utterly neglected as in Spain: the authorities having no farther
anxiety about them, than to prevent their escape; not the slightest
attention being paid to their moral conduct and not a thought
bestowed upon their health, comfort or mental improvement, whilst
within the walls.
